Rail transport in Queensland began in 1865. Today it is one of the largest narrow gauge railway network in the world.
Contents |
On 2 June 2009 the Queensland Government announced the 'Renewing Queensland Plan', with Queensland Rail's commercial activities to be separated from the Government's core passenger service responsibilities, and formed into a new company called QR National Limited.[1][2] The new structure was announced by the State Government on 2 December 2009,[3] and will in place from 1 July 2010.[4]
The nascent Queensland Railways was persuaded that the way to build low cost railways was to use a narrower gauge than the standard gauge of 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in). A prototype existed in Norway. The proposed narrow gauge railway would have very sharp curves of 5 chains (100 metres) on the long climb to Toowoomba at about 900 meters (3,000 ft) above sea level. If the railway could only manage a top speed of 20 miles per hour (32 km/h), then it was thought that it would be sufficient for a hundred years. One of main advantages of a narrow gauge railway is that less earth has to removed from hills and mountains during construction.[5]
The choice of the non-standard narrow gauge was and still is controversial, and the choice was approved very narrowly by parliament. Thus the die was cast for a large narrow gauge system, which was copied by three other Australian states and many other countries besides. A hundred and fifty years later, Queensland is still sparsely populated (4 million in 2005), but many trains hauling coal are some of the longest and heaviest in the world.
The original light and cheap Queensland Railways was designed for operation at 15 mph or 20 mph.[6]
Historically the government owned Queensland Rail has been the main rail operator in Queensland.
The exception has been the standard gauge link from New South Wales into Brisbane, since completed in 1930 it was operationally a part of the New South Wales system and run by their government owned railways, even though the line itself was owned by Queensland. From 1994 National Rail took over the operation of virtually all standard gauge freight services to and from Brisbane, as part of a reorganisation of interstate freight in Australia.[7]
It was not until 2002 that QR entered the standard gauge market through subsidiary Interail, by 2004 they were running freight services from Brisbane through to Melbourne.[7] Today standard gauge freight services are operated by Pacific National after their acquisition of National Rail, and QR subsidiary QRNational.[7]
On the narrow gauge Queensland Rail operates all passenger services and haul the majority of freight. In 2005 the first non-QR narrow gauge commercial rail operation started in Queensland, with Pacific National Queensland (a subsidiary of Pacific National) commencing operation of container services between Brisbane and Cairns,[8][9] followed in 2009 by their entry into the export coal market.[10] Queensland Rail's subsidiary Australian Railroad Group have also entered the Queensland narrow gauge freight market, operating trains between Townsville and Mount Isa in their own right.[11] Standard gauge passenger services are provided by the New South Wales based CountryLink using their XPT.
Queensland Railways sold a line in 1964 to the Gin Gin Cooperative Mill who converted it to a sugar tramway.[12] A number of tramways of 610 mm gauge for the transport of sugar cane have operated in Queensland as private concerns, associated with the relevant sugar cane mill. These tramways are quite advanced technically, with hand-me-down rails cascaded from the normal rails, remote-controlled brake vans, concrete sleepers in places, and tamping machines in miniature. The twenty or so separate tramways cooperate in research and development.
The first Brisbane Airport rail line, named Airtrain, officially opened to passengers in May 2001.[13] Under a BOOT scheme - build, own, operate and transfer - the Queensland Government licensed Airtrain Citylink to build the rail line, to own and operate it, and hand the entire infrastructure over to the Queensland Government after 35 years when the company will then cease to exist.[14][15] Airtrain Citylink contracted Transfield Services to build, operate and maintain the line[14] and finally Airtrain Citylink contracted QR to provide rolling stock for the rail line.[16]
For City train services, Queensland Rail's rolling stock is electric, air-conditioned, were constructed locally in Maryborough, and are no older than thirty-three years:
All Citytrain trains are electric multiple units with a driver cabin at both ends, with the exceptions of EM60 through to EM79 having only one cab at one end. All are configured with three cars, except for the ICE sets that are usually configured with four, five or six cars.
Long-distance services are operated by Traveltrain, a division of Queensland Rail. Traveltrain services mainly cater to a tourist market.
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||